NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Finnish firm Mobidiag has secured funding to develop a rapid molecular sepsis assay on its Novodiag system. The new funding consists of a €1.5 million ($1.74 million) loan for the first year of the project supplied by Business Finland, a funding agency formerly known as Tekes.
Chief advisor of Business Finland Raimo Pakkanen said in a statement that the agency's strategic goal is to enable global growth of Finnish companies and there has been special emphasis on the nation's health technology sector, adding that the new funding can "support the export of Finnish high-tech diagnostic products."
Mobidiag had previously developed an array-based sepsis product called Prove-it Sepsis, which detected about 80 targets simultaneously from blood culture in a few hours, the company said. The new Novodiag system allows a syndromic approach, testing directly from patient samples to allow for faster, simpler tests for applications in which time to result is critical.
Combined with a successful €4.0 million ($4.7 million) financing round announced last week, Tuomas Tenkanen, CEO of Mobidiag, said the firm is now "in a very nice position to continue its mission to fight against infectious diseases and the spread of antibiotic resistances."